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Soldiers Not Paying Accom Charges

dogguk

Old Salt
Has a Platoon Sgt welfare of a soldier is one of my main priorities, i was shocked to find out that a number people within my platoon had not been paying accomodation charges apparently due jpa/jpac and anyone else they can blame, some of these run well into the high hundreds. This is through no fault of there own becasue it has been flagged up on a number of occassions. Some of my guys will be losing an extra £150 - £200 out of there pay packet a month which is causing massive dramas with there finances. Is there a redress system or in some way that i could get the amount reduced. My pay staff are not being to helpfull with this matter i beleive they are trying to hush it under the carpet hence the post on this forum. Any help would be great.
 
dogguk said:
Has a Platoon Sgt welfare of a soldier is one of my main priorities, i was shocked to find out that a number people within my platoon had not been paying accomodation charges apparently due jpa/jpac and anyone else they can blame, some of these run well into the high hundreds. This is through no fault of there own becasue it has been flagged up on a number of occassions. Some of my guys will be losing an extra £150 - £200 out of there pay packet a month which is causing massive dramas with there finances. Is there a redress system or in some way that i could get the amount reduced. My pay staff are not being to helpfull with this matter i beleive they are trying to hush it under the carpet hence the post on this forum. Any help would be great.

As much as I hate to agree with Toppers :) he's actually right.

Your "pay staff" (HR administrators) will have hopefully track and moved them correctly, but JPGay is a right bugger for effing up allowances.

No, there is no redress, and no you can't get it reduced - they've been living there, ergo, they have to pay for it.

LJS or Paywog, feel free to put me right if I'm talking pooh.
 
if it was me, i would have admitted to ******* it up and then i would start the accom from the day i noticed i had not started it. Backdating the charges so far back that they cause hundreds of pounds worth of bills is a jack move by the HRA's and are clearly being tools.
 
i would also like to add (just to cover myself) that what they have done is not wrong and is clearly done by the book. Still really **** though
 
Echo the above.

If it happens again, ie a tom comes to you as a Plt Sgt.

Tell them straight.

1. Set aside that money. and do NOT treat it like a pay rise.

2. Get in touch with the relevant bods to get he charges turned on soonest.
 
There is something you can do. There is a DIN out there about adjusting the GPD recovery rate. Search for it on the DefenceNet or you Unit HR should already have a copy.

Once you have a copy you can fill in the relevant Annex and submit it accordingly.

PM me if you need more details.

99
 
Any backdated charges will be recovered at the rate of 4 days gross pay per month - once they get JPA to make the charge. This can be upped if requested by the individual to pay the debt off more quickly. The rate can be reduced if the individual can show severe financial hardship but this is very rare.
As other posters have said if you are aware you are either not paying a charge that you should be or receiving an allowance that you shouldn't be you should set aside the extra cash (I know this is probably easier said than done when the cash hits your bank account) The powers that be have decided that all soldiers should now be treated as grown ups, in the olden days when we had cash paid soldiers the pay staff could adjust drawing rates to take this sort of thing into account but as I said these days are gone.

PW
 
Soldiers need to understand how much their monthly take home pay will be affected by the 4 days pay recovery. I've seen some people quite shocked and wishing they had put the money away knowing full well that it would be recovered. Even a level one Pte will see their take home reduced by just shy of 180 quid until any debt is recovered. Its recovered at 4 days gross pay - people often dont realise that.

Doesnt excuse the fact that the system doesnt seem to work very well. Talking to the HR staff then nothing happening gives no accountability for any mistakes made (by the HR staff of JPAC). It pi5ses soldiers off and really isnt good enough.
 
I agree Officers and Soldiers do need to understand what they are getting paid and when something is wrong. You may think that it is rare for people to appeal to the recovery of a GPD at the MDR but under todays economic cliamte it is becoming the norm.

One way to look at it is, with the way the Army Payroll Team runs its Payroll, and the elements that make up the payroll. Retro Pay which is the element of the payroll that looks into the past in the last 3 months has been run in the previous month(ie 30 Jan for Feb 09). This means we are all looking at a lead time of 2 months to rectify issues with JPA (Providing The Payroll team run the elements on the dates they publish, which they do not most of the time)

In the old days an issue on UNICOM would be rectified issues within a day or 2 however under the new JPA, it can take several months and under which the age old saying of "you should't have spent it" is not really plausable.

99
 
If they really feel that they do not want to pay these charges back then there is a DIN containing annexes, I forget the title of it as I am at home at the moment, that invites the SP to either Opt to pay back the full amount in one go, pay in lower instalments than the MDR (Minimum Drawing Rate) or disagree to pay in entirity, this option has to have a supporting letter from the CO with it.

All of it gets sent to the Debt Management Team at Glasdow for a decision, I have just done all this for one of mine, I originally sent the case (it was a GPD repayment disagreement, not the fact that it was owed, just in the way JPAC had messed it up and delayed the recovery, causing more financial heartache) up in the PACC format, however, this was rejected and passed for action as above.

As part of the DIN you also have to complete an annex informing the SP of the Debit, all this is much the same as we used to do with GPD's under lagacy, the notification, action letters etc.

Good Luck, if you want the DIN title PM me and I will give you the reference.

Regards

LJS
 
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